Cop Investigating Surrey Six Murders Got Drunk And Slept With Witness

Derek Brassington, a principal RCMP investigator into the murders of six men in a BC highrise, was sentenced to two years of house arrest for his actions.

A body is rolled out of the high rise following the Surrey Six shooting in 2007. Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press.

An RCMP officer who was involved in a massive murder case admitted to treating a key witness like a “girlfriend” during the investigation into one of the bloodiest crimes in BC history.

Derek Brassington, who was a sergeant in the RCMP when he acted out this lazy porno script, was investigating the Surrey Six murders which saw six men executed in a Surrey condo building in 2007. The killings were initially targeting one person who was selling drugs on a rival gang’s turf, but eventually turned into one of the bloodiest shootings in BC history when the perpetrators turned their guns on five more men to eliminate witnesses. The investigation into the murders, which eventually resulted in five murder convictions, has since been described as “massive.”

Brassington, as reported by the CBC, was one of the principal investigators looking into the murders and was assigned as a witness manager. In this role, as he told the court, he came across a key witness who he would “fall in love” with.

Brassington, alongside two others who covered up his actions, would eventually be charged with misconduct. The trio all pleaded guilty and attended sentencing hearings this month, where Brassington admitted publicly to his conduct. A publication ban initially prevented media from reporting on these details, but the ban was recently lifted after CBC and Global News filed challenges against it.

According to the CBC, Brassington began crying after his sentencing and said, "I treated her like a girlfriend. I didn't mean to fall in love with her."

The months-long relationship began in June 2009 when the woman decided to cooperate with police and move from BC to Calgary. Brassington described the woman as “crucial” to the investigation. He began managing her in the witness protection agency—including visiting her intermittently to make sure she didn’t flip on police.

Brassington took witness protection trips with a police partner, which meant he would apparently sneak away from his hotel room while his colleague was sleeping and have sex with the witness, then sneak back before the morning. As their relationship grew so did their boldness, and the duo was spotted at bars and strip clubs together. At one point they even went to a bar with Brassington’s boss, and the senior officer watched the key witness sit on Brassington’s lap for most of the night. The two had sex in cities across the country including Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Victoria, and Toronto—all trips the officer would eventually bill the RCMP for. In just one night out together the two, and a few others, spent $800 on booze.

The affair ended with someone telling the RCMP what was going on after about six months. Brassington would eventually become divorced as his actions came to light.

Brassington pleaded guilty to breach of trust and compromising the integrity and safety of a witness. David Attew, his superior, and Danny Michaud, a fellow investigator who also worked on the case, pleaded guilty to lying about the affair when asked about it. Brassington received two years of house arrest, while Attew and Michaud received three months each.

According to court documents, behaviour of the officer caused a ton of police work to be thrown out and be redone. A mother of one of the men who was killed during the shooting told the CBC she was worried the officer’s conduct would jeopardize the convictions.

"It gives me some sort of a hope that, finally, they are realizing all the pain and harm that has been caused by their actions on innocent family lives," she told the national broadcaster. "I have to accept [the sentences] with a heavy heart, but I'm grateful that some sort of a sentence has been given and some sort of recognition of misconduct."